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These presentations from Know-How Center Bulgaria, Children and Family Initiative, and Changing the Way We Care, were delivered during the September 30, 2021, workshop of the Care Measurement Task Force of the Transforming Children's Care Global Collaborative Platform. The focus of the workshop was translating research evidence into action.
The main finding of this report from Disability Rights International (DRI) is that Bulgaria has replaced a system of large, old orphanages with newer, smaller buildings that are still operating as institutions. While the new facilities are officially referred to as “family-like” residences or “small group homes,” DRI’s investigation finds that they are neither small nor are they family homes. In fact, they are mostly 14 bed facilities. Many group homes are run by one local authority, leaving a few administrators responsible for dozens of children. In one case, DRI investigators observed…
Abstract
The present study addressed institutionalised children and staff members' perspectives about bullying in Residential Care settings (RCs) in five European countries (Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy and Romania.). Interviews and focus groups were conducted respectively with 123 institutionalised children and adolescents (age range: 6–18) and staff members (N = 95; age range: 23-63). Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. Overall, findings indicated that participants were not fully aware of the specific features of bullying. Children and…
An estimated eight million children still live in institutions across the world. Deinstitutionalisation involves strengthening and developing services to prevent children being separated from families. It involves closing down institutions; including children in society and in their communities; and giving them their right to a family. This film from Lumos is about the people who know that there is an alternative to institutional care, and who are working hard to make it happen. These are their stories, in their own words.
The video highlights work to transition institutions in…
Abstract
In recent years in Bulgaria the type of institutional care for children at risk is changing giving priority to family and close to family environment. The will to implement this process of all involved responsible agencies, institutions and non-governmental organizations has found expression in a number of regulations, strategic and program documents, as well as innovative and successful practices. Economic, political and social changes that accompany the transition has led to new problems and exacerbated existing problems. Current study makes analyses of the national strategy for…
This article discusses Bulgaria's challenges since the shut down of its crowded institutions, which housed disabled children. Over the past six years, Bulgaria has built almost 150 homes to house disabled children. The new homes while a significant improvement face staffing challenges. Workers complain of low pay. There are also still reports of forced feeding of the children within the homes.
The Bulgaria Country Fact Sheet provides short details on the state of institutional care in Bulgaria. It notes that at the beginning of 2016, 1,495 children were living in 47 institutions in Bulgaria. In 2015, there were 2,721 children in 87 institutions.
In regard to child protection and deinstitutionalization reforms, the Bulgaria Country Fact Sheet outlines the 2016-2020 Action Plan, which includes prevention services, family-based care for children deprived of parental care, and closing of remaining institutions for children deprived of parental care.
This report shares outcomes to date for a group of 1,292 children and young people with disabilities who have transitioned out of large residential institutions (institutions) into small group homes (SGHs) in the community. This assessment was undertaken by Lumos in cooperation with State authorities from October to December 2015. The information gathered was compared with available data from an assessment of the same group carried out at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, when the children and young people were still living in the institutions.
This article discusses how at the end of the Soviet Union the world was alerted to the situation of thousands of children living in large residential institutions across countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) region.
The study discusses a variance in results in eliminating use of large-scale residential institutions for children across the CEE/CIS region. In particular, there was noticeable variance between Bulgaria and Ukraine. The researcher investigated this variance using a comparative case study approach. The researcher…
This brief is part of the Opening Doors for Europe’s Children campaign and is based on the proposal made to the Bulgarian Government by the Coalition ‘Childhood 2025’ to update the structure and content of the updated Action Plan. Members of the Coalition expressed their wish for active inclusion and participation at all levels of the process of elaboration and implementation of the Action Plan for the period of 2016-2020 in regard to the implementation of the National strategy “Vision for the deinstitutionalisation of children in Bulgaria”.
The brief urges the Bulgarian…